Students, no matter what age, struggle from time to time focusing in school, and some even begin to lack interest in going to school and getting good grades. One reason for these occurrences is a lack of fun, educational techniques. We want to propose a solution to that by introducing a video game that allows for creativity, education, and fun if used in the proper way.
The game being spoken of is Minecraft, or in this case MinecraftEdu. MinecraftEdu is a popular game turned educational for students. It is a place where kids of all ages can build anything they desire in a world of squares and blocks. Now that it is used for an educational environment it provides teachers with the opportunity to find more ways to teach their topics to the class, whether it be through mods or through their own ideas.
Scientific evidence has shown that playing action packed video games for a period of time improves skills, especially reading comprehension and attention span. Other research shows that playing these types of games can help the 10% of children with dyslexia (Boulanger, 1). Though MinecraftEdu is not high in action, it has a fair amount and can be used in this case. It's simplicity of maneuvering is helpful as well, which helps in quick brain process thinking.
This is a golden opportunity to expand education like never before, and provides all students the ability to learn in a fun, new way. Request that the Union County Board of Education acknowledge this and to put MinecraftEdu into action in all our schools.
For more information on reasons for supporting, please view the following sites: http://minecraftedu.com/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/learning/why-fun-matters-in-education.html
Works Cited
Boulanger, Amy. "How Video Games Can Help Children Succeed In School." Medical Daily. N.p., 24 May 2013. Web. 05 Aug. 2014.
